


Blame

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Dead of Summer (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7662649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At Cricket's memorial, everyone has their own reasons for feeling responsible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blame

If Alex had taken Anton seriously, he wondered, could things have gone any differently? He’d been so sure that these tales of a tall man were just something Anton had made up to win the attention and liking of the other campers. Hell, he’d even done that himself a few times after he’d come over to the US from Russia, and no one had taken him seriously either. After Alex had encouraged Anton to start going by Tony, and had shown him how to get back at those kids who were picking on him, he’d thought things were looking better for him. Everyone had already started calling him Tony, and he’d managed to win their respect. Alex hadn’t heard anything about the tall man for a few days now, and had just assumed that was the end of the matter now Anton didn’t need to tell the story to make friends any more.

But faced with Joel’s story, and knowing that there had been such a person, Alex wondered if there had been anything he could have done to change things. He understood that he wasn’t alone, that a lot of people hadn’t believed there was a tall man, and that even if he had believed it it was possible he wouldn’t have been able to convince anyone anyway. 

But the tall man wasn’t the only reason Alex blamed himself. If he’d never asked Cricket to meet up with him away from the others, it wouldn’t have happened, no matter what Joel said about his crazy visions. This one was on him.

 

As Blotter got off the bus, he saw the faces of the other counsellors watching him. Amy had run up to him and given him a hug; Joel and Blair both looked pretty sick but still managed to greet him anyway; Drew didn’t say much but then he never had.

He couldn’t look at Alex right then; had planned on never seeing him again and if it wasn’t for the fact that today was Cricket’s memorial he wouldn’t be having any contact with him now either. It took all that he had not to punch him in the face.

Blair hadn’t wanted to say anything, but had accidentally let something slip and Blotter had realised that Cricket had been on a late night date with Alex when she died. Unbelievable. 

“He’s beating himself up about it, Blotter,” Blair had said. “We all are, in our own ways. You going after him isn’t going to help matters. It won’t bring her back.”

“No, but it’ll make me feel better,” Blotter snapped. “He was on a date with her, and he wasn’t even taking care of her. If he hadn’t got me sent home, maybe I could have been with her instead, maybe I could have managed to save her. But she never even knew I cared.”

“She saw the mix tape,” Blair reached out and put a hand on his arm. “She did know.”

Blotter knew that Blair was trying to make him feel better, and maybe to some extent it did.

But he would still have no qualms about punching Alex Powell.

 

As Amy watched the faces around her, she thought back to Margot’s funeral, how everyone around her had stared at her, how she’d imagined everyone was staring at her accusingly. Margot had been well liked among the class, and Amy could imagine the whispers around her: “Did she really try hard enough to save her?” Everywhere she turned, eyes were upon her, she could feel the blame radiating from each and every last one of her classmates.

Now she wondered if the rest of the camp counsellors were feeling the same way as her old classmates had. Joel had made the choice to ignore the tall man and not to kill her; Cricket was dead because of her.

“Don’t think like that, Amy,” Blair had whispered. “If he’d listened, we’d all have been here at your memorial right now. And none of us would have wanted that either.” Cricket’s best friend, someone who’d been close to her through school as well as camp, and he was the one to reassure her, which just made Amy feel guiltier. Such a tight knit group, all of them having been to camp together for so many years, and Amy the outsider; was there really no one who was thinking that it should have been her?

That day when she’d been struck by lightning…why had she been saved, when she could so easily have died then? If this tall man wanted her dead, was there another force out there wanting her alive? Amy didn’t understand any of it, and not understanding scared her even more.

 

He shouldn’t have come here.

Joel should have known that the same thing was going to happen as was happening at home, that the man would appear and tell him to do things he didn’t want to do. If he’d stayed away, would that have kept the others safe?

He’d thought he had to come, to finally get some answers. Michael hadn’t started talking about seeing a man until after one summer when he’d come back from Stillwater, that last summer he went, but Joel hadn’t known what it was all about at the time, and he’d thought that maybe if he was here, he’d finally understand what was happening.

He just hadn’t expected Cricket to be taken from them because of it.

No one understood what was going on. Amy hadn’t recognised that picture Jessie showed them; she had no idea why she might be important to the man, and no one else apart from Anton seemed to have ever seen him before. Why him? Why was the man talking to Joel? They were all feeling guilty, and yes, Joel knew that if he had chosen to do as the man said, they’d all be here at Amy’s memorial right now, and there was nothing he could have done.

But he could have tried harder to get through to Michael all those years ago, he could have tried to find out more, then maybe he’d know how to get rid of the man, how they could be happy and safe at the camp. Now they all had to work together, to figure out what to do to put an end to him. Then Joel would finally be free again.


End file.
